MLB 16: The Show
Summary MLB 16: The Show is an updated version of the famed Baseball game series. Story The 30 Major League Baseball Teams compete against each other for the coveted World Series trophy. Game Modes Franchise Mode You can play or manage as your favorite team in either Franchise or Season Mode as well as be in charge of your team's roster, pitching rotation, lineups and coaching staff. Road to The Show Create your own player and work in the minors so your player can make it to the Majors in this mode. Diamond Dynasty Build up your very own dynasty by using the baseball cards you have purchased or unlocked in this mode. Inventory Here, you can purchase a variety of things by using stubs (the game's currency) in this mode. You can also set missions for yourself to earn more stubs and even unlock new features. Mini Modes Here, you can Practice in the batting cages or on the field, you can also play Home Run Derby or even set up your own Postseason with these modes. Options Mode Here, you can change the difficulty sliders as well as set up the team's rosters and even import your own music. Johnny's Review General Thoughts As you know already, I haven't been always on the same page with The Show as it was more difficult than the 2K series. But as I said before too, the 2K series doesn't make baseball games anymore, and because I got a Playstation 4, I decided to give the Show another chance. Graphics The Graphics in this game has recieved a tweak from the last version of the game. The lighting is much more dynamic as you can get a real sense of a sunny day and a cloudy day, and there's even some "shiny" effects on things such as the numbers and other symbols on a team's uniform, the character's faces have also received a significant make over as well as the created players (or existing players the moved to another team) can smile as they didn't in the previous versions. So the graphics in this game are a bit more life-like, but minus all of the scariness of other games with life-like graphics. 'Grade: '''A Music As always, ''MLB: The Show has a soundtrack which features rock, rap, pop and some country music as well. Of course, you can turn these off in the options menu if you really don't like these tracks, as always again if you do turn off the music tracks , you'll have to hear the sometimes annoying top highlights of MLB games of the previous season. In this game however, you can import your very own music. The problem with that is you need a specially formatted USB Hard Drive in order to do it, and if you don't know where to find one or can't afford it, you are out of fortune basically. 'Grade: '''C+ Sound/Voice The sounds have taken a bit of a hit from the previous games. The sounds of the bat hitting the ball and the ball hitting the leather of a fielding glove sound much softer. This is basically a downgrade as some of us like loud, crisp noises (especially on how the bat hits the ball), plus the sounds of the stadium and even the music at the stadium also sounds softer than it did. Of course, Matt Vasgersian, Erik Karros and Steve Lyons are the commentators for each game. Vasgersian sounds just a bit more enthusiastic than he did in previous games (as he's been there since the beginning of the series, but only a bit more enthusiastic. All of the commentators also have only some new things to say when commentating on the game. '''Grade: '''D Gameplay/Controls As I said before, The Show has a bit of a reputation of being much more difficult and dynamic in comparison to the 2K series. However, it appears Sony has worked a lot on the game's gameplay. There are a lot of new gameplay features, first is called the "ShowTime" mode where you can slow down certain moments of the game a la ''The Matrix and make spectacular plays or see the ball better. Fielding is also made more dynamic as you throw to another fielder you must use the R control stick and then press the R2 Button once you place the cursor to the fielder. There are also moments where you're automatically in a Matrix slow-motion moment to make either a diving or leaping catch. Road to The Show also has some unique new features, once you get a certain attribute to a certain level, you can unlock what is called a "Perk" (not to be confused with the perks in the new Wolfenstein games) where it makes playing baseball games easier. Of course some of these new features are optional and you can turn them off in the options menu. In fact, the difficulty can be dramatically adjusted to compensate for casual gamers and gamers who don't fully understand the game of Baseball, for instance if you adjust the CPU Pitcher strike frequency to maximum, all pitches will be in the strike zone, in previous games even if on maximum, the pitcher will *still* pitch out of the zone to get you to chase, this is not the case in this game which is a plus from the previous games, makes it more of a relaxing experience. '''Grade: '''A- Replay Value Like in previous MLB The Show games, there a lot to collect in this game, ranging from Baseball Cards (not real Baseball Cards) as well as RTTS equipment and franchise sponsorships, and it can be purchased by stubs (the game's currency), there are also challenges in the game where you can unlock more stubs and even more experience points. The Inventory has a seemingly endless list of things for you to purchase with your stubs. '''Grade: '''B+ Final Thoughts I think I may have a change of heart with this game as it has come a long way from being the strictly hardcore Baseball game that's concerned for realism than just being a simple baseball game. Though, it still has to look real, but it doesn't have to play like it's real. This time, you don't have to know the game of baseball to play this game. It's definitely much easier and more relaxing to play. '''Grade: '''B